The collection, of Coptic MSS. in the Fine Arts Museum in Moscow is the most important in the USSR, along with the collections of the Saltykov — Schedrin State Public Library and the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. The vast majority of the Coptic documents kept in the Fine Arts Museum and the Hermitage was published by P. V. Jernstedt (only small fragments were left out by him). A catalogue of the Mss. of the Public Library was issued in 1969 together with the publication of several Mss. of its collection. This book contains a complete catalogue of all the literary Mss. of the Fine Arts Museum and almost all the MSS. hitherto unpublished are edited here for the first time.

These MSS. belong to the collection of Vladimir Golenischev, the distinguished Russian Egyptologist. His collection was acquired by the Government in 1909 for the Fine Arts Museum in Moscow, which was opened for the public on 12 June, 1912.